The Washington Post's George Will claims that the "theatrics" of Elon Musk's DOGE cuts that have caused fury over database access and mass firings is a brilliant distraction from the country's biggest problem: the massive debt that continues to spiral out of control.
In a Wednesday opinion piece, Will wrote that the administration has had little "substantial achievement" so far toward DOGE's mandate to eliminate government "waste, fraud, and abuse." This dearth of accomplishments, "will exacerbate the fiscal incontinence that is the nation’s foremost domestic crisis," he wrote.
"In this fiscal year’s first five months, beginning Oct. 1, the government borrowed $1.1 trillion — almost $8 billion a day," Will wrote. "In February, the first full month of the Musk’s government-pruning “revolution,” borrowing was $308 billion because spending was $40 billion more — a 7 percent increase — over February 2024."
Will added, "This is not Musk’s fault. His 'efficiency' crusade is a gnat nibbling at the elephantine government’s accelerating growth."
And for all of DOGE's firings, canceled grants, and scrapped contracts, Will wrote that "Musk's theatricalities are impotent: Government spending will grow as long as baby boomers continue to retire, the population ages and Congress continues to enlarge the national debt with gargantuan budget deficits."
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The Republican-led Congress is to blame for putting up with Trump's executive orders essentially wiping out its legislative power, he wrote. Will gave the example of the 2024 TikTok controversy.
"Before Trump’s inauguration, Congress passed an anti-TikTok law meticulously specific about the timetable for TikTok’s being either sold or banned. Trump, however, issued an executive order instructing the attorney general to disregard the timetable. From the Republican-controlled Congress came its anthem, Simon and Garfunkel’s 'The Sound of Silence,'" he wrote.
Will concluded that, "In 2025, one party is prostrate before its Dear Leader, and the other is unembarrassed about pathetically waving a sign proclaiming “This is not normal.”
Will leaves "the fiscal incontinence that is the nation’s foremost domestic crisis," firmly in the hands of the do-nothing Congress who could put the brakes on Trump and Musk, if only they'd participate."